This document provides a timeline of major events in Philippine history from the Spanish colonial era through the Japanese occupation during World War II. It outlines the key periods of Spanish rule from 1521-1898, the beginning of American colonial rule after the Spanish-American War, and the Japanese occupation from 1941-1945 which saw the invasion and conquest of the Philippines by Imperial Japan. The timeline traces the major political and military developments during each period of colonial control.

1. TIMELINE OF THE
PHILIPPINE HISTORY FROM
SPANISH ERA - JAPANESE
ERA
SUBMITTED BY:
• AZARCON, RENITO JR. P.
• CABALLERO, DENNIS
• CRUZ, DIANNE KIMBERLY
• RAGUINDIN, DANIELA JANE
• REALCO, JOHN MICHAEL
• SANTOS, JULES ARGIE
I-A EDUC
SUBMITTED TO:
PROFESSOR JENNIFER UMALI -
GARCIA

2. TIMELINE OF THE SPANISH
ERA IN THE PHILIPINES
SPANISH COLONIAL ERA, BEGINS WITH THE ARRIVAL IN 1521 OF
EUROPEAN EXPLORER FERDINAND MAGELLAN SAILING FOR SPAIN,
WHICH HERALDED THE PERIOD WHEN THE PHILIPPINES WAS A COLONY
OF THE SPANISH EMPIRE, AND ENDS WITH THE OUTBREAK OF
THE SPANISH–AMERICAN WAR IN 1898, WHICH MARKED THE BEGINNING
OF THE AMERICAN COLONIAL ERA OF PHILIPPINE HISTORY.

3. 1600s-1800s - The Philippines under Spanish Rule
1560-1820s - Challenges to Spanish authority
1600-1800s - Cultural Changes and identity
Mid 1700s-1900s - The beginning of Filipino Nationalism
1882-1892 - The campaign reforms
1892-1896 - Bonifacio and the katipunan

4. TIMELINE OF THE AMERICAN
ERA IN THE PHILIPPINES
THE U.S. OCCUPATION (1898-1946) THE FIRST PHILIPPINE REPUBLIC
WAS SHORT-LIVED. SPAIN HAD LOST A WAR WITH THE UNITED
STATES. THE PHILIPPINES WAS ILLEGALLY CEDED TO THE UNITED
STATES AT THE TREATY OF PARIS FOR US$20 MILLION, TOGETHER
WITH CUBA AND PUERTO RICO.

5. 1898
• FEBRUARY 28 - Roosevelt cabled Dewey to make Hong Kong his
base of operations
• APRIL 11 – President McKinley recommended direct American
intervention in Cuba to the US Congress.
• APRIL 23 – Aguinaldo with Gregorio del Pilar and J. Leyba, secretly
went to Singapore and arrived there.
• APRIL 25 – Spanish-American War began.
- Commodore George Dewey, upon orders of President
McKinley, proceeded immediately to the Philippines with a squadron
of four armored cruisers, two gunboats, and a revenue cutter.

6. • MAY 1 – They entered Manila in the early morning.
• MAY 17 – The shift left and arrived in Cavite two days later. Immediately, Aguinaldo was taken
aboard the Olympia, where he was accorded honors due to a general.
• MAY 21 – Two days after he arrived, Aguinaldo in a letter advised the people to “respect
foreigners and their properties, also enemies who surrender. If we do not conduct ourselves
thus, the Americans will decide to sell us or else divide up our territory as they will hold us
incapable of governing our land; we shall not secure our liberty: rather than contrary, our own
soil will be delivered over to other hands.”
• JUNE 2 – General Artemio Ricarte accepted the surrender of the Spanish commanding
general in Cavite.
• JUNE 12 – Philippine Independence was proclaimed.
• JUNE 18 – Aguinaldo issued a decree reorganizing local governments in areas liberated from
Spain.
• OCTOBER 1 – Peace commissioners of Spain and the US met in Paris, France to draft a
peace treaty in Paris.
• NOVEMBER 29 – The Malolos Congress approved the Constitution.
• DECEMBER 21 – President William McKinley announced his decision to keep the Philippines
as an American colonial possession.

7. 1899
• JANUARY 20 – President McKinley appointed the First Philippine Commission
(the Schurman Commission), to investigate conditions in the islands and make
recommendations.
• JANUARY 21 – The Malolos Constitution was promulgated due to Mabini’s
objections.
• JANUARY 23 – The first Philippine Republic or Malolos Republic was
inaugurated in Malolos, with Aguinaldo as its first president.
• FEBRUARY 4 – An American sentry, Private William W. Grayson, with another
soldier, encountered three armed Filipinos on a bridge in San Juan Del Monte
near Manila.
1900
• MARCH 16 – To facilitate the implementation of the recommendation of the
Schurman Commission, President McKinley created the Second Philippine

8. 1901
• MARCH 2 – The military government in the Philippines ceased to exist when United States
Congress enacted the Army Appropriations Act.
• DECEMBER 25 – All men and women and children of the towns of Batangas and Laguna,
were herded into small areas within the Poblacion of their respective towns and were kept
prisoners for months.
1902
• FEBRUARY 27 – General Vicente Lukban, who resorted to ambushing American troops in
Samar, was captured in Samar.
• APRIL 16 – General Malvar surrendered to General J. Franklin Bell in Lipa, Batangas.
• JULY 4 – President Theodore Roosevelt declared that the Philippine-American War, which
Americans called the Philippine Insurrection, was over.
1907
• JULY 30 – The elections for the Philippine Assembly were set after the conditions set forth by
the Philippine Bill of 1902 were satisfied.

9. 1916
• AUGUST 29 – The Jones law was enacted by the 64th United States Congress and
contained the first formal and official declaration of the United States Federal
Government's commitment to grant independence to the Philippines.
• OCTOBER 3 – Elections were held for the new law-making body of the country.
• OCTOBER 16 – Governor-General Francis Burton Harrison established the Council
of State.
1921
• MAY 4 – The Special Commission started its work of obtaining vital information
needed by the President Harding.
• OCTOBER 5 – Leonard Wood returned to Manila to replace Francis Burton Harrison
as the country’s Governor General.
1927
• AUGUST 7 – Wood died while vacation in the United States.

10. 1935
• SEPTEMBER 17 – The first elections were held.
• NOVEMBER 15 – The Commonwealth of the Philippines was formally
inaugurated; President-elect Manuel L. Quezon and Vice-President-
elect Osmeña were sworn into office by then Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court, Ramon Avanceña.

11. TIMELINE OF THE
JAPANESE ERA IN THE
PHILIPPINES
THE JAPANESE OCCUPATION OF THE
PHILIPPINES OCCURRED BETWEEN 1942
AND 1945, WHEN THE EMPIRE OF
JAPAN OCCUPIED THE COMMONWEALTH
OF THE PHILIPPINES DURING WORLD WAR
II.

12. 1939
• SEPTEMBER 1 – World War II broke out as a result of Adolf Hitler’s blitzkrieg or lightning
attack of Poland. As a result of this incident, Britain and France were forced to declare war
against Germany.
1941
• DECEMBER 7 – In the morning, Japan attacked the American Naval Base in Pearl Harbor in
Hawaii, without a formal declaration of war.
• DECEMBER 8 – The invasion of the Japanese in the Philippines started 10 hours after the
surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, The Japanese began bombing Davao, Tuguegarao,
Zambales, Pampanga and Tarlac.
• DECEMBER 11 – Germany and Italy declared war against the United States
• DECEMBER 22 – General Masaharu Homma, the Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese
Imperial Forces in the Philippines, landed 43,000 Japanese troops at the Lingayen Gulf and
starting marching south toward Manila
• DECEMBER 26 - Manila was declared an open city by US general Douglas MacArthur during
the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. The Imperial Japanese Army ignored the
declaration and bombed the city.

13. 1942
• JANUARY 2 – The Japanese occupied Manila.
• JANUARY 3 – General Homma, the commander of the Japanese Imperial Forces in the Philippines,
announced the ending of American Sovereignty in the country and the beginning of Martial Law.
• JANUARY 29 – The Council State was formed because General Homma appointed Jorge Vargas.
• FEBRUARY 17 – The Japanese propagated their Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere with education
and labor
• MARCH 11 - Roosevelt appointed MacArthur army commander in the Pacific but he proceeded to
Australia famously telling reports there, “I shall return.”
• MARCH 29 – The Communists and Socialists organized the People’s Anti-Japanese Army
(HUKBALAHAP), which had 30,000 guerilla fighters led by Luis Taruc and Casto Alejandrino with
thousands of supporters north of Manila.
• APRIL 9 – United States and Filipino defendants in Bataan surrendered to Japanese
- Death March began on which 7,000–10,000 died or were murdered.
• MAY 2 - Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos, who was captured in Cebu, was executed by the Japanese in
Malabang, Lanao.
• MAY 5-6 – The Battle of Corregidor was the culmination of the Japanese campaign for the conquest of
the Commonwealth of the Philippines during World War II, resulting in Japanese victory.

14. 1943
• SEPTEMBER 4- The proposed Constitution was signed by the members of the Commission.
• SEPTEMBER 7- The approved charter was ratified by the members of the KALIBAPI. (Kapisanan sa
Paglilingkod Sa Bagong Pilipinas.)
• SEPTEMBER 23- Jose Protacio Garcia Laurel was elected President of the Philippine Republic, while Benigno
S. Aquino was elected Speaker of the National Assembly.
• OCTOBER 14 – The Second Philippine Republic or the Japanese-sponsored Republic was inaugurated.
1944
• JUNE 19 – The American forces moved step by step across the Pacific Ocean and began the Battle of the
Philppine Sea by invading Guam.
• AUGUST 1- President Manuel L. Quezon died in Saranac Lake, New York and succeeded immediately by
Sergio Osmeña.
• SEPTEMBER 21 – Planes from United States carriers attacked Manila.
• OCTOBER 20 – Americans landed on the beaches of Leyte. General MacArthur threatened to send high
commissioner back home, and Roosevelt let the arrogant General have his way to Philippines.
• OCTOBER 23 - MacArthur formally proclaimed the restoration of the Commonwealth Government at Tacloban.
• OCTOBER 23-26 – The Battle of Leyte Gulf has been called the greatest naval battle in history.
• DECEMBER 8 – The Makabayang Katipunan ng mga Pilipino (MAKAPILI) was essentially a politico-military
organization formed by the Japanese High Command.

15. 1945
• JANUARY 9 – The Americans took Lingayen Gulf by surprise.
Kamikaze pilots dove their planes into US ships in the Lingayen Gulf,
destroying 24 ships and damaging 70.
• JULY 4 - MacArthur proclaimed that the Philippines had been
liberated from the Japanese.
• AUGUST 6 – Hiroshima was bombed.
• AUGUST 9 – Another bomb was dropped at Nagasaki.
• AUGUST 14 – The Japanese Empire surrendered.
• AUGUST 17 – Laurel issued a proclamation dissolving the Second
Philippine Republic
• SEPTEMBER 2 – MacArthur presided over the ceremonial signing of
papers